River thought to be contaminated by Hong Kong’s biggest landfill ‘within safe chemical limits’
Government contractor says it has fixed an error which led to ammonia levels 48,000 times higher than the legal limit
Water from a river thought to have been contaminated by run-off from Hong Kong’s largest landfill is within safe chemical limits, the government contractor that runs it said on Thursday.
This came after a local media outlet and a legislator earlier this month commissioned water quality tests on samples taken near the tip of the western New Territories in Tuen Mun, run by SITA Waste Services, and found concentrations of ammonia nitrogen thousands of times above safe limits, prompting a warning from environmental authorities.
A malfunctioning switch, intended to stop waste water spewing from the Tuen Mun landfill when it rained, was said to be the cause of the problem, according to the Environmental Protection Department. The department said it inspected the tip earlier this month and told the contractor to fix the problem.
“The company took immediate action to thoroughly investigate the matter and rectify the situation the same day,” the contractor said in a statement on Thursday.
“Additionally, to ensure this incident did not cause any impact to the water quality of the nearby river, in late August, the company took additional water samples, and the test results did not exceed the discharge standards for landfills.”
The contractor said the department considered it an “isolated incident”, and confirmed that the surrounding environment and water near it were unaffected.